SHALLA CHATS with Alexandra Sokoloff

“Writing the Novel vs. the Screenplay”

by Shalla DeGuzman

First off, who’s Alex?

Alexandra Sokoloff has made a living over the past 10 years as a screenwriter for numerous Hollywood studios such as Sony, Fox, Disney, and Miramax. Her adaptation of Sabine Deitmer's psychological thriller Cold Kisses, co-written with Kimball Greenough and Thomas Reuter and directed by Carl Schenkel, was filmed in Germany

Over the past few years she has negotiated to buy the rights to her original scripts back in order to adapt them into novels of her own. The first, The Harrowing, was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel, and is based on real happenings during her high school and college years, with psychological undercurrents drawn from her experience teaching emotionally disturbed and incarcerated teenagers in the Los Angeles County prison system.

Ira Levin (Rosemary's Baby, The Stepford Wives) calls the book, "A first novel of unusual promise... raises a fine crop of goosebumps and shivers." The Price, another dark suspense title based on one of Alex’s screenplays, follows in January 2008.

Shalla: Hello Alex, how are you? Thanks so much for joining us.

Alex: Thanks for asking!

Shalla: Is there a difference between writing a screenplay vs. writing a novel? Is one more stressful than the other?

Alex: There’s not a huge difference in crafting the story – the structuring is exactly the same, creating character and plot and theme is exactly the same. It’s the way you tell the story that’s different. A screenplay unfolds visually – you have to find visual depictions of plot, relationships, emotions, and themes. You have to do that in a novel as well, of course, but a novel gives you some extra dimensions – you can go in and out of characters’ heads, for example.

A screenplay works very well as an expanded outline of a novel. You can take a screenplay and basically direct it onto the page to create a novel, making all those choices like casting, performance, set and costume and lighting design. But to me those things were all there when I was writing scripts, as well – you just can’t put as much onto the page because of the rigid format of screenplays. It does take longer to write a novel but you don’t have the trouble and frustration of having to incorporate a dozen executives’ perspectives on the story. Writing a novel is a much more pure and satisfying way to work.

I wouldn’t say that either form is more stressful than another. I think it depends more on the specific project than the form. The writing by committee aspect of screenwriting is stressful, but it can also be a hell of a lot of fun – that all depends on the people you end up working with. Basically, all writing is really hard!

Shalla: Are screenplays harder to sell than novels? Why/why not?

Alex: I don’t think there’s a single answer to that – again, it depends on the project. It’s not a great market for spec (meaning original) screenplays right now at all, and statistically about three times more novels make it to the screen than spec screenplays. The thing that most people don’t realize about screenwriting is that it’s not really about selling original work, although I’ve made a lot of my own living that way. Screenwriting is a JOB.

By far the most work in film writing comes from being hired to adapt other people’s projects – not your own. An original script most often simply acts as a sample to get you hired on another project – a novel or comic book adaptation, or a rewrite of another script, or a remake of an older or foreign movie, or an original idea of a producer’s.

Shalla: What does it take to sell screenplays? The right schooling? Proper credentials? Knowing the right people?

Alex: Well, if what you’re asking is how do you break into Hollywood screenwriting, again, I think that first you have to understand that screenwriting is a job. You’re going to be hired by other people to execute THEIR ideas. So you have to realize that an original script most likely won’t get made – it’s an audition to get you other jobs.

You need to have an agent, who does the selling for you – both of your script and of you as an employee. You have to live in Los Angeles, at least at first, or be able to convincingly pretend that you have a place in LA., because you need to be available for the (endless!) meetings. It generally takes quite a few meetings to get a single job.

Once you understand all that, there are two main, tried and true ways to break into screenwriting. First, of course, you need to write a great script. Then you can:

Move to Los Angeles and get a job as a script reader (story analyst) which will teach you about writing and the film business and make you all the connections you need to get an agent.
And/or:

Enter and win or place in one of the top screenwriting contests or workshop programs. (You don’t have to move to LA right away to do that, but it’s a way a lot of people have gotten their first break into film writing).
(For anyone who is interested in learning more, I have much more detailed information about specific contests and resources on my website, http://alexandrasokoloff.com)

Now, if you have a passion project and you don’t care about making a whole career as a screenwriter, you just want to get THIS one movie made, you should be thinking about going the independent route – finding an independent filmmaker or independent financier who loves your project as much as you do who will team up with you to get that particular film made.

Shalla: Is it hard to turn a screenplay into a novel? What did you have to do to accomplish this in The Harrowing?

Alex: As I said, I thought of it as directing the film onto the page, creating enough detail and sensory experience to put the movie I was seeing directly into the reader’s head.

The big difference in adapting the script to a novel was narrative voice, which you don’t have in a script. I decided to make Robin the point of view character and filter the entire story through her perceptions, in a very close third person perspective. It was a fun way to work – a lot like acting, really.

Shalla: Do Producers and Directors make changes in the screenplay?

Alex: Oh, constantly, both while you’re writing and during production. They also change writers - I’m sure you know that most movies have a dozen to several dozen writers who’ve worked on them by the time they hit the screen.

It still burns me to read a review that says a movie is bad because the script is bad. As if the writer has anything to do with the final product! It’s laughable – and tragic.

Shalla: Now that you’re publishing your novels, you’ll probably be offered movie deals for them. Will you turn them into screenplays yourself?

Alex: Yes, I’m attached as the screenwriter of THE HARROWING, and that’s the deal I’ll always make for my novels. That only guarantees me the first two drafts, though. After that, you just don’t have any control at all over what happens.

But it doesn’t matter to me, anymore. I already wrote the book, I own the copyright, and no one can change it. Believe me, it feels good!

Shalla: Thanks for sharing your expertise, Alex! For more on Alexandra Sokoloff and her latest blockbusters, please visit: http://www.alexandrasokoloff.com/

Shalla DeGuzman's short stories have appeared in Poetic Diversity, the Mosaic Literary Journal, the Mad Hatters Review; her articles in The Scriptorium and L.A. Freepress; her skits at the Stella Adler Theatre. Shalla, a former writer and producer of a health and fitness cable show, is currently writing a new novel. She is President of The ShallaDeGuzman Writers Group; the Senior Editor of SHALLA Magazine where she interviews literary agents, publishers, editors, and authors; and the Publisher for SHALLA Publishing. News! Shalla has been nominated for the prestigious Pushcart Prize. SHALLA Magazine, which features short stories and excerpts from top, award-winning writers, now sold at www.amazon.com! For more on Shalla: www.shalladeguzman.com